Overview
- Government data showed a 24-hour average AQI of 279 on Oct. 29, easing from 294 on Tuesday and 301 on Monday but still in the ‘poor’ range.
- Local hotspots remained severe within the city, with stations such as Wazirpur (347), Vivek Vihar (339), Rohini (337) and Anand Vihar (331) in the ‘very poor’ band.
- The Air Quality Early Warning System projected ‘poor’ conditions through Oct. 31 with a risk of sliding to ‘very poor’ on Nov. 1 and fluctuating thereafter.
- Dispersion indicators stayed weak with a ventilation index near 2,200 m²/s and a mixing depth around 1,500 meters, conditions linked to light winds, temperature inversion and persistent haze expected by the IMD.
- A cloud-seeding effort led by an IIT Kanpur team did not yield rain and further plans were canceled, as some experts also questioned whether recent AQI dips could reflect measurement anomalies near monitoring sites.